Ask: ‘I wonder if anyone can tell me what love is?’ Field the various responses and say, ‘sometimes love is giving up something so that you can help someone else. For example, you may give up watching a TV programme so you can help your mum with the housework or dinner, to show her you love her. Or, you give some of your time and effort to raise money for people less fortunate than yourself because you care for them. (Red nose day)

Now, this kind of giving we call sacrifice which means ‘giving up something valuable for something else that’s really important.’

Illustration

Now to explain a bit more about sacrifice we’ve got a little quiz with a nice prize for the winner and a nasty forfeit for the loser.

Explain:

Winner will get chocolate, loser will get egged! (Get a teacher to volunteer and your partner in crime)

Ask them three questions each, easy ones to your volunteer – they of course get the questions right. Ask the teacher difficult questions – they of course get the answers wrong! (Alternate question asking)

At the end, say you are going to egg the teacher as they clearly got all their questions wrong. Here’s where your volunteer steps in to take the egging in their place – break the egg on their head.

Talk

Sacrifice is a really important part of love. And (Chris) suffered a little there, he gave up his nice hairdo so your teacher didn’t have to take the punishment for getting all those questions wrong.

Now it’s easy to say you love someone, it’s easy to give someone a hug, and hugging is a part of showing someone you love him or her. But are we prepared to suffer to help others?

Next week is Easter, a time when Christians remember the death of Jesus and celebrate His resurrection.

Just as Chris stepped in to take the punishment for the wrong answers from your teacher, we believe that Jesus stepped in and was crucified to take the punishment for all the wrong we do, so that if we chose to follow Him we can be forgiven and one day have eternal life with him.

There is a verse in the Bible that says:

For God loved the world so much that he gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him may not be lost but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Christians believe that this was the greatest sacrifice anyone has ever made, to lay down his life for the whole world.

You will hopefully never be in the place of having to give up your life for someone, but maybe you might think about some sacrifices you could make, to show someone you care or love them.

And when eating your chocolate eggs next week, perhaps you might remember the Christian message behind Easter, that of Jesus giving up His life for us all.